The county Legislature will meet tonight at 7 at the Putnam County Historic Courthouse on Gleneida Avenue in Carmel to vote on the Ailes donation agreement as well as the latest version of a 15-year lease with developer Paul Guillaro. His company is building the mixed-use project along Route 9D in Cold Spring at the site of the former Julia Butterfield Hospital.

Legislator Carl Albano, R-Carmel, who chairs the Legislature’s Physical Services Committee, said he likes partnering with the Ailes nonprofit, with Ailes' $500,000 donation and what he sees as the former Fox executive's ability to drive down the cost of public construction.

“He’ll get more bang on the dollar than the county could get on its own,” said Albano. “He can accomplish more than what we can do. He knows how to get the best deal.”

Shine the light

But residents of Cold Spring in recent days have mounted a campaign to shed light on the project, which will be named for Ailes. Many don’t want a public facility named for the Garrison resident, who resigned from Fox following a high-profile sex-harassment suit, and several more allegations of harassment of women who worked for him.

They have also questioned the senior-center deal, for which few details have been disclosed by the administration of County Executive MaryEllen Odell. An online petition posted Friday called on the county to make public the donation agreement with Ailes. By early Monday night, it had 437 signatures.

“My baseline is that the Ailes money costs too much,” said former Cold Spring village Trustee Stephanie Hawkins. “There’s a huge stain on the man’s name, and it’s his own spill.”

The senior center, which last year was to be built in one of Guillaro’s new buildings, has since been relegated to the Carolyn Lahey Pavilion on the Butterfield site, which also includes a park named for former Gov. George Pataki. The squat brick building that’s now rented for medical offices will be gutted, with 6,000 square feet renovated for the senior center. About 20 Philipstown seniors show up daily for lunch at the county's Cold Spring program at the cramped American Legion Hall.

The move to Lahey proved costly for Putnam County taxpayers. At Butterfield’s gala groundbreaking last Summer, Odell estimated that the Ailes Senior Center in the new building would cost $850,000.

Since going to the older building, the price has almost doubled to $1.5 million, according to a July 7 application for state funding signed by Odell.

The balance of the cost would be coming out of taxpayers' pockets at both the state and county levels, according to documents obtained by Tax Watch. Putnam is seeking $500,000 in state funding through Albany's latest member-item reform, and plans to go in debt another $500,000 to pay for the senior center.

Earlier versions of the Ailes Center lease and donation agreement were approved by the county Legislature in May, but never made public. The county administration has refused to release the documents under the state’s Freedom of Information Law because the agreements were not yet signed.

Roger Ailes, right, and his wife, Elizabeth, at the July 8, 2015, groundbreaking of the Roger Ailes Senior Center in Cold Spring.(Photo: David McKay Wilson/The Journal News)

Deputy County Attorney Anna Diaz said making the agreements public “would impair ongoing negotiations.”

A public-private pact

She might be right.

The Ailes donation agreement details an unusual public-private partnership, which puts the media mogul in charge of a public project through his ACI Senior Development Corp. ACI was formed in 2013 to help fund the senior center; Ailes is its president. His wife, Elizabeth, the publisher of two Putnam County weekies, serves as its treasurer.

Under the agreement, ACI will contribute a “partial renovation” of the rented space, and deliver its final project “as is” to the county, with no warranty, the agreement states.

This means that the county would have no recourse if the Ailes nonprofit delivered a faulty project.

Municipalities typically have warranties built into construction contracts. In New Rochelle, for example, City Manager Chuck Strome said the city’s public works projects have a two-year guarantee on structural work and a one-year guarantee on all other work, with the city retaining 2 percent of a contract until the guarantee period runs out.

The Ailes nonprofit will hire Ray Memmel, owner of Mountain View Construction, of Patterson, as the project’s construction manager, according to the agreement. It also states that Memmel will give preference to contractors from Putnam County to build the public project.

The Cold Spring senior program would be relocated to the 6,000-square foot Ailes Senior Center, with five bathrooms, a commercial kitchen, dining area, offices and recreation space. A zoning dispute caused by the move from the new building to Lahey resulted in the stipulation that "Putnam County will provide round-trip bus service for all participants of the on-site programs provided by the county at the county senior center for the full term of its lease/occupancy."

The Ailes construction team would demolish the Lahey Pavillion interior, and provide the project’s carpentry, plumbing and electrical work, the agreement states. Much of the project's material, however, would not be Ailes’ responsibility — including 16 windows, 20 plumbing fixtures, the commercial kitchen, and 15 interior doors.

Albano said he expects the state funding would cover those costs.

New York legal requirements

Public works projects in New York are strictly regulated, with requirements for public bidding, employee pay, and separate contracts for four groups of tradespeople.

The Ailes donation agreement does not require that ACI have its contractors come under the state’s “prevailing wage” law, which sets hourly rates for workers in public projects. It makes no requirement that the project be subject to public bidding. And it does not make the project comply with the state’s Wicks Law, which requires separate contracts for general contracting, plumbing, electrical and heating/ventilation work.

Odell did not return numerous phone messages seeking comment. Elizabeth Ailes did not return a message left at the Putnam County News & Recorder.

A spokesman for state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli declined comment on whether a nonprofit can run a public works project and not be subject to state bidding and contract laws.

But a 1987 comptroller’s opinion said that public projects that include nonprofit donations would require public bidding if more than $7,000 in public funds was expended. The Wicks Law would be required if more than $50,000 in public funds were used.

Pet projects fund

The state funding would come through the state Dormitory Authority’s State and Municipal Facilities bonding program, known as SAM. It’s a $385 million-a-year pot of discretionary money that allows the governor or state lawmakers to seek funding for pet projects. Proposals from legislators must first be vetted by the leadership of the Senate or Assembly, and then sent to the Dormitory Authority for further review.

In late July, state Senate finance staff did a preliminary review of state Sen. Sue Serino’s request for $250,000 for the Putnam senior center, and sent it forward to the authority on July 22. Assemblywoman Sandy Galef, D-Ossining, said she expects to present a request to Assembly leadership this week, seeking an additional $250,000.

Funding is released following review by the agency, and consensus of the governor and both houses. An authority spokesman said the agency received Serino's funding request on Friday, and has asked Putnam County for further information.

Serino’s application made no mention that Roger Ailes’ nonprofit would be in charge of the public works project. It didn’t call the project the Roger Ailes Senior Center, as it will be named.

Construction, it stated, was expected to commence on Nov. 1.

David McKay Wilson is an opinion columnist for The Journal News/lohud.com and writes the weekly Tax Watch column.